Business

Alibaba Invests $50 Million in Smart Remote App Peel

Alibaba is inching deeper into consumers' homes with its latest investment.

The Chinese ecommerce giant has invested $50 million into Peel, a startup that transforms iPhones and Android phones into smart remotes and helps promote entertainment content. News of the investment comes just weeks after Alibaba's record-breaking IPO.

"They see it as a very strategic product because Alibaba has interest in mobile, TV and entertainment. That's the triangle that they are really interested in," Bala Krishnan, cofounder and president of Peel, told Mashable in an interview this week.

Alibaba had previously invested $5 million in Peel as part of a funding round last year. It decided to double down on the startup after Peel revealed its plan to move beyond the television and become a remote control for other connected devices in the home.

"When they saw us going beyond that into the connected device and connected home area, that is one of their newfound strategic areas in which they are investing," Krishnan says.

The latest funding round was actually closed several months ago, but the companies stayed mum about it due to the quiet period around Alibaba's IPO. Below, Alibaba's U.S. startup investments, as of March 2014:

Alibaba has made a number of strategic investments in U.S. startups in recent months, including ride-sharing service Lyft and messaging app Tango. These investments not only help extend Alibaba's influence beyond China, but also put its tentacles into tech industries outside e-commerce.

"'Tentacles' is a negative word," Krishnan says, when asked about Alibaba's investment strategy to date. "They make their bets and once they make their bets they are encouraging... Every single portfolio company is encouraged to go big."

Krishnan touted Alibaba for helping Peel break into new markets abroad and not micromanaging the startup. He says he hasn't seen Alibaba push for immediate returns or try to acquirer portfolio companies, though he admits the latter can always change if Alibaba sees more of a strategic interest.

Peel has now raised $95 million in funding to date and has more than 90 million users worldwide.

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